Among the first online articles pertaining to The Epoch Times is that of Wikipedia which defines it as a “far-right” publication. In our contemporary cultural climate, that term is of course one of derision. But like “hatred” and “privilege” it is a term that is most often an expression of the irrational assumptions of its users rather than of anything meaningful about those to whom it is applied.
The “conservatism” defended here and indeed by a multitude of thoughtful, intelligent commentators, aspires to be Rational and as such is decidedly of the Center. It is constantly referenced as a form of Extremism only because most “progressives” are inherently, fundamentally Irrational. The CBC’s repudiation of The Epoch Times manifests the stupidity of the Left in all its glory.
The Chinese Communist Government banished the Falun Gong approximately 20 years ago. Placing thousands in “detention” camps, at times harvesting their organs as if they were mere animals, the C.C.P. has been persecuting members of this peaceful religious sect ever since, apparently executing over 1600 of them in 2015. It was in the year 2000 that Chinese Americans affiliated with the Falun Gong began to publish the Epoch Times, a journal naturally opposed to China’s totalitarian government and staunchly committed to Western “conservatism” which it sees as the only political movement fervidly devoted to the Rights of the Individual.
In the early months of 2020 The Times naturally focused on Covid-19, at one point publishing an eight pager edition suggesting that it had likely originated in a Wuhan virology lab while also mentioning that various C.C.P. officials had cited bio-weapons as a means of furthering their political agenda. Clearly and with good reason not trusting the information put out by China’s government, it began recommending travel restrictions to and from that country in early Feb., one of its headlines unambiguously reading “How the Communist Party Endangered the World.”
Coincidentally, in Markham Ont., the large community of Chinese ex-patriots there circulated a petition in January suggesting that anyone returning from a visit to the Wuhan area should be quarantined for 14 days. Their petition was deemed in most official circles to be unduly alarmist.
Such was the reaction throughout “progressive” Canada. In late January, Patty Hadju, Minister of Health, said she had no reason to doubt the narrative proffered by both the C.C.P. and the WHO that the virus was not readily transmitted. Canada’s chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, declared that chances of a significant outbreak here at home remained low. Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer, said on Jan. 30 that he was reassured by the fact there really had not been any significant evidence of Covid-19 in his home province. While many nations had established travel bans to China by mid February, Canada, predictably, had not. One wonders how many Canadian lives our government’s reticence may have cost. The rationale behind that reticence was perhaps best expressed by our Prime Minister who suggested that blaming China for what would turn out to be a catastrophic pandemic was tantamount to “stigmatizing” all Chinese Canadians. Really?
In late April the CBC, ever eager to attack any institution of a “conservative’ perspective, accused The Times of being racist and inflammatory, suggesting that it had “polarized” Canadians. Citing the concerns of three individuals, one of whom had been appalled to receive the Times’ print edition unsolicited in their mailbox, another being a postal worker irritated that he had been forced to deliver it, the CBC suggested that some massive pandemic of anti-Chinese racism had been unleashed by the journal’s conjectures. Have you seen any sign of such? As the writers published by The Times are almost exclusively White, one might assume it to be the product of so-called White Supremacists. Bizarrely, pathetically, the CBC conveniently failed to mention that the founders of the Epoch Times were in fact Chinese.
To those rendered insane by Identity Politics, casting suspicion upon the behavior of a demonstrably murderous Totalitarian government is apparently comparable to demonizing the entire Chinese Race. It’s the bizarre Logic of the Left, whatever the subject. Criticize any aspect of radical Feminism and you are a misogynist who hates all Women. Denounce some of the barbarities of Sharia law still practiced around the world and you are an islamophobe who hates all Muslims. Point out that many of the Black men killed by police in the States are career criminals and you of course hate all Blacks.
The articles published by The Epoch Times are without exception factual, rational and extremely well-written. That the CBC chose to accuse Chinese Americans of publishing a journal given to inciting hatred against their very own people is absurd. It might, of course, have cast a critical eye upon the C.C.P., but the latter is a “collectivist” venture given to the pursuit of the “common good,” a quest irresistible to Western “progressives” even though it inevitably seems to entail the incarceration if not extermination of hundreds of thousands. So with typical lack of moral clarity, with typical Leftist bias, the CBC chose to equate The Epoch Times’ criticism of the C.C.P. with Racism, fairly predictable, I suppose, in a country whose Prime Minister ludicrously announced some time ago that he admired the way the C.C.P got things done!